“Grand Budapest Hotel” becomes Wes Anderson’s highest-grossing movie

April 15, 2014 - 12:41 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - “The Grand Budapest Hotel” has reached yet another milestone. The quirky dramedy has passed the $100 million mark at the worldwide box office to become director Wes Anderson’s highest-grossing movie to date. Although it took over a month to meet the lofty goal, the film has only been in wide release since March 28. “Budapest Hotel” has now expanded to 1,467 locations, making it Anderson’s second widest release behind “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which showed in 2,300 theaters, Variety said.

Even though the film has earned more than any other Anderson pic ($103.8 million), it’s a distant third behind “Moonrise Kingdom” and “The Royal Tenenbaums” in terms of domestic gross. “Budapest Hotel” has made a whopping 62% of its gross overseas, only behind “The Darjeeling Limited’s” 66% share.

“Royal Tenenbaums” is the auteur’s second most successful film with a $71 million worldwide gross.

“Budapest Hotel” also broke the record for the highest-grossing limited live action debut of all time. With a $800,000 weekend bow, Anderson’s eighth feature film stole the arthouse crown from “The Master.”

The Ralph Fiennes starrer, which checked into only four theaters in New York and Los Angeles on March 7, averaged more than $200,000 per theater, overtaking the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed drama, which averaged $147,000. That marked the best non-event opening gross ever for a New York or Los Angeles premiere and the auteur’s most successful debut to date.

“The Master” previously beat the record set by Anderson’s last film, 2012′s “Moonrise Kingdom.” With help from a Memorial Day weekend berth, that movie averaged a record-setting $131,000 in four theaters. Anderson now has two of the three top limited live action debuts.